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The Viper talks big. Always has. The allure of the previous car lay not only with its performance, but the air of danger that surrounded it. Has the new 2013 SRT Viper betrayed that character? After all, it has stability control (shock!), offers electronically controllable dampers (gasp!), and — horror of horrors — the designers took the interior seriously (eek!).

Fret not, ye faithful: The SRT Viper still has a big mouth, but it’s grown a great personality as well. You just need the balls to get to know it.

SRT’s desire was to dispel the car’s widow maker stereotype but retain the chest-beating charisma. Their work has birthed a massively improved Viper, still all huff and puff and blow your house down on the road, but far more agreeable on the track.

Its street characteristics are either miserable or unapologetic, depending on whom you ask. It’s still hard to see out of, with a third of the pillbox-like front view obscured by the hood (the sun visor blocked my view completely). The Viper’s new, thin leather seats don’t lend themselves to long drives, nor does the drone at freeway speeds (and this was the GTS, with its extra 40-pounds of sound deadening material). You will lose skin from your fingers when you adjust the seats, as the controls are mashed up against hard plastic. And the steering wheel doesn’t telescope.

Ah yes, so it remains a knuckle dragger, but what about that stability control? It’s there — mainly to meet a federal mandate — but you wouldn’t guess it. Wide-open throttle stints in lower gears produces impressive wheel spin with little, if any intervention — and that’s how SRT wants it. Stability control won’t save you; you can John Deere your way through the foliage.

The all-important intimidation is here in full force, then, and when we arrive at Sonoma Raceway for an autocross and track time, the dark clouds and drizzle conjure dread. It doesn’t help that our lighter, Track Pack-optioned cars ride on Pirelli P Zero Corsas, which need quite a bit of heat in them before they have appreciable grip.

But a miraculous thing happened at the track: The Viper became genuine fun. With speeds rising, each crack at the wheel, each throttle application chipped away at its Mr. Hyde personality, revealing a shockingly controllable sports car. It’s was such that I immediately felt compelled to turn stability control off.

Let’s reiterate, because it speaks volumes about the car: This Viper, with its 640 horsepower, 600 lb-ft of torque, and track day-oriented tires, was begging to be driven fast in damp conditions without stability control.

Welcome to the new Viper, a product of a freed engineering team genuinely enthusiastic about what they’re doing, that wants to make the best driving car they can. Their work means that the Viper is now a car with authoritative, nicely weighted steering that relays command over the rest of the car. Part of this is due to the steering system itself, which retains the same ratio as the previous car but has a new steering gear. Another big contributor is the x-brace covering the engine, which also contributes to a 50 percent increase in torsional rigidity. Impressively, the Viper is a car that not only has immediate and plentiful torque, but a controllable rear axle. The SRT team attributes this to a change in suspension philosophy and design, giving the rear axle stability during compression. Either way, where the old Viper felt like two halves of a car arguing with each other – with little air left for the driver to get a word in – the new car acts as one.

That’s important, because the level of grip afforded by 295 front and 355 rear section rubber is silly. Placed next to each other, the forged wheels offer a nearly 4-foot wide footprint. That may sound as comical as the Viper’s proportions seem, but remember that its overall length is 1.1-inches shorter than a Porsche 911, though it is more than 5-inches wider with a 2.3-inch longer wheelbase.

One of our complaints with the previous Viper ACR was its long gearing, and to this end SRT has shortened the final drive. Now it reaches top speed in sixth gear, but still hits 60 mph in first, helping drop the estimated 0-60 mph time to the low 3 second range (launch control is activated by pressing a button on the steering wheel). Rowing the gearbox is fun, although the tiny dead pedal and its close proximity to the clutch was a minor annoyance – I occasionally caught the clutch arm instead of the footrest.

The GTS uses two-stage Bilstein dampers that feel appropriately stiff in Race mode. Alas, rain and time constraints precluded further analysis – at this point, the staff was calling the area around turn 9 “Lake Sonoma”. Nor could we test the cooling system’s prowess, which SRT is particularly proud of, claiming the car will last for long lapping sessions while others overheat (did someone say GT500, ZR1, GT-R?).

While the car may last, I’m curious how long a driver will go. For as controllable as it now is, the speeds it travels and the gs it generates mean managing the Viper takes much physical and mental effort. After muscling it around, you get out breathing hard, heart pumping. Part of it is the work, yes, but also the surprise that something once so terrifying is instead malleable. It’s a once feared bogeyman offering a bear hug.

Crucially though, the new Viper inspires its driver. Not on the road, mind you. But the Viper is now a car you want to spend more time in it, learn its behavior, and master. This is its strongest success: That it’s transitioned from a car reserved for the masochistic few to a car that you’d want to explore on the track.

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